Silence and Tears
by Sethoz
Summary: The Spirit of the Abyss has taken an interest in Harper...and it won't let him go without a fight. -Part 2-
1. Greetings

Disclaimer: My second Andromeda fic ever! My first try at a longer story than a one-shot. At the moment I haven't seen that many episodes so if I've made any huge horrible errors, please let me know gently.  
  
I don't own Andromeda, Harper or anything else used in this story.  
  
Set right after "Into the Labyrinth". (You know, the one with Spike from Buffy in.)  
  
Please read then leave a review.  
  
Silence and Tears  
  
~~~  
  
Part One: Greetings  
  
~~~  
  
Satrina was not used to being afraid. But there was no other way to describe how she felt at this moment.  
  
"You failed him." The female voice was low and silky, yet Satrina shuddered. She bowed her head in submission.  
  
"I will not fail him again," she said, risking a glance upwards. She was faced by an amused smile.  
  
"That's true. You won't," the other female said, raising a gun. Satrina's eyes widened.  
  
"No-" she pleaded, her hands wide. The gun fired. There was a scream followed by a thud. The killer stepped over Satrina's cooling body and stared down at it.  
  
"The Spirit of the Abyss had decided that Mr. Harper will be of more use than you. Therefore your contract is terminated." The shadowy female smiled and dropped the gun.  
  
"I will not fail as you did," she assured the dead body.  
  
~~~  
  
"Incoming transmission, Captain," Andromeda's hologram said. Dylan looked up.  
  
"Well, let's hear it," he said. The screen flickered and changed to reveal a red haired woman, a smile on her face as she looked at them.  
  
"Do I have the pleasure of addressing Captain Hunt?" she asked.  
  
Dylan raised an eyebrow. "You do."  
  
"My name is ambassador Lintar. I represent the people of Herazed. May I come aboard?" she asked.  
  
Dylan turned to Rommie who nodded slightly.  
  
"Of course, Ambassador, we would be glad to receive you. If you don't mind me asking why do you want to come aboard?"  
  
"Why, I should have thought that obvious. My planet wishes to join your commonwealth," Lintar said. Her gaze swept over all the crew members, before fixing on Harper. "Lintar out." The screen went black.   
  
"Okay, was it just me or did someone else get the hebe jebes off her?" Harper complained. Beka looked faintly surprised.  
  
"Why, Harper, I'm surprised at you, I thought you liked any female," she said. Harper raised his hands in mock surrender.  
  
"Hey, I didn't say she wasn't a babe. Just that I think she's a little?off," he said. "I'll be in the Machine shop."   
  
~~~ Lintar leaned back. Everything was going as planned. The fools on the Andromeda believed her, just as she knew they would. And while the Nietzschean would be untrusting, he would not act until it was too late.  
  
She would not waste time by trying to tempt Harper on board the Andromeda. No, she would simply go in and take him, then deal with him at her leisure. In the back of her mind she heard the faint music of the Spirit of the Abyss and shuddered.  
  
No, she would not fail.  
  
Seamus Zelazny Harper would belong to the Spirit of the Abyss, heart and soul.  
  
And she, Lintar, would be right there when it happened.  
  
~~~   
  
Lintar stood and waited. This was it, this was the moment that would tell her if she had tricked them. From what she had heared of Captain Hunt, the moment she had cut the transmission, he would have called up information on her planet so as to be able to greet her in the right way.  
  
Lintar just hoped that she could remember the right way too. Her mind drifted back to the body of the real Ambassador. It was a pity really that she had been forced to kill the woman, but such losses were only to be expected for the greater good of the Spirit of the Abyss. Her mind snapped back to the here and now as the doors slid open to reveal Captain Hunt and the AI of the Andromeda...  
  
Rommie, it was called.  
  
This would be interesting.  
  
~~~  
  
"Wow, she is truly a babe," Harper said to himself, looking at a recording of Ambassador Lintar. "Hello? What's this?" he asked, his attention drawn from her... large assets, to the side of her neck.  
  
"Is that a data port? Why yes, Harper, it is, however did you notice something small like that? Are you a genius or what?" he said smiling. "Why, Harper, thank you for the lovely compliment. I just have good eyes."  
  
"Harper? Who are you talking to?" Trance asked. Harper jumped and turned to face her.  
  
"Woah, my purple princess! You nearly gave me a heart attack!" he complained. "If you must know, I was simply complementing myself on my amazing eye sight. Miss Ambassador has herself a data port," Harper said.  
  
Trance frowned and peered at the frozen picture.  
  
"I don't think I really like her," she said. "Don't talk to her and don't believe her. No matter what she says," Trance said, her face completely serious. Harper raised his eyebrows.  
  
"What are you talking about?" he asked. Trance shrugged her shoulders as Harper turned away to look back at the picture.  
  
"I would so do what she says... Trance? Trance?" he asked, looking over his shoulder. The female was gone. "Oh great."  
  
~~~  
  
"Trance," Dylan said, a smile on his face. "What can I do for you?" The two were walking along one of Andromeda's many corridors. Trance looked around her before leaning closer to Dylan.  
  
"I don't trust Lintar."  
  
"Trance, you haven't even met her yet," Dylan said. "Don't worry, everything will be fine." He walked on , leaving Trance standing there, a small frown on her face.  
  
"No, it won't."  
  
~~~  
  
Lintar paced backwards and forwards in the quarters given to her, a frown on her face. This was not part of the plan, she had been given a tour of all the ship and had yet to see the elusive Mr. Harper. She rubbed at her right arm in anger.  
  
Time was running out.  
  
"Um?Ship? Miss?" she asked, putting on an innocent voice. There was a small 'fizz' and the hologram appeared.  
  
"Yes, Ambassador?" she asked.  
  
"I've met all your wonderful crew, but something puzzles me. Who fixes you? Are you so advanced you can fix yourself?" she asked.  
  
"I have an engineer, called Mr. Harper," the Hologram replied primly. Lintar nodded, giving a little inward grin.  
  
"One engineer? For the whole of your amazing ship? Amazing. May I meet him?" she said. The hologram hesitated. She was very protective of Harper and there was something about this woman that she didn't trust. After a split second gap she nodded and the doors to Lintar's quarters opened. Rommie stood outside.  
  
"Harper is in Machine Shop Three. Let me escort you," she said. Lintar smiled, a grateful smile.  
  
"Thank you."  
  
The walk was conducted in silence. Finally they reached the machine shop and the doors skimmed open. Harper looked up from the machine he was working on.  
  
"Rommie babe! What can I do for you?"  
  
"Ambassador Lintar, this is Mr. Harper," Rommie said. Lintar stepped forward, her right hand extended, a wolfish smirk on her face. Harper took the offered hand gently, his attention caught by the large bracelet she wore. It was silver, with red at either end. He pulled his mind back to the here and now with effort. He was still standing there, his hand in Lintar's own.  
  
"Nice to have met you, Mr. Harper. Do you spend a lot of time here?" Lintar asked. Harper nodded, still slightly shaken by what just happened... What ever it was. Lintar turned to Rommie.   
  
"Thank you. I don't suppose you could show me to my ship? I left some information there that I will need for the negotiations." The android nodded and Lintar looked back at Harper.  
  
"Thank you as well, Mr. Harper. I'm sure you and I will get on fine?" she said before walking out after Rommie. She hurried along the corridor after her, still rubbing at her arm where her bracelet was. It was starting to be a problem but if she wore it as it really looked then someone was bound to notice it and her plan would be ruined.  
  
Harper stared after her, a bemused expression on his face. He gave a slight, unknowing shudder then returned to his work.  
  
~~~  
  
Lintar slipped inside her ship, after saying a polite goodbye to Rommie. She had no doubt that the ship would monitor her carefully but she was ready for that. Taking a deep, unneeded breath she picked up her plug-in wire and connected herself to her ship.  
  
The inside of her ship was dark, as it had always been. She looked around.  
  
"Open file Lintar 1 Harper 0," she said in a cold voice. There was a rush of air as if someone had blasted at her, then three aliens appeared.  
  
"The countdown begins now. In 40 minutes you will invade the ship. Your targets are everyone on this ship excluding the engineer Mr. Harper. If you encounter him, do not harm him in any way. The Spirit would be most displeased if he was harmed before he is ready. Kill if you want. After I have removed the human and left the ship, you will leave in your own vessel. Understood?" she asked bristly. The others nodded. Lintar clasped her hands together.  
  
"Good."   
  
There was another rush of air past her face and she was out of the system. The red head picked up the papers she had come to collect and exited the ship, making her way back to her quarters.  
  
Now to simply stay in there until the alarm was given. The 40 minutes passed without incident. Finally, the alarms blared out, warning of intruders. She stood up and pulled a slip of metal from her bracelet. It was something that Harper himself would have recognized.  
  
A tesseract generator. Lintar smiled then simply vanished.  
  
Her plan had begun.  
  
TBC...  
  
And there you have it.  
  
How was it, was it any good?   
  
~Sethoz 


	2. Under Attack

Disclaimer: I am so sorry about the lack of up-dates. Got a bit stuck then distracted. I'm so glad everyone is enjoying it so far. At the moment I haven't seen that many episodes so if I've made any huge horrible errors, please let me know gently. I don't own Andromeda, Harper or anything else used in this story. Set right after "Into the Labyrinth". (You know, the one with Spike from Buffy in.)

  


Please, please read then leave a review.

  


Silence and Tears 

  


~~~

  


Part Two: Under Attack

  


~~~

  


_Roughly ten minutes before Andromeda was attacked..._

  


Rommie walked along one of the many corridors, heading back to Machine Shop Three, where Harper was still working. As the android walked towards the shop, she tried to focus what it was that she didn't like about Lintar. It was nothing different, nothing she could really analyze... it was just something about the way she had shook Harper's hand, something about the smile she had given Captain Dylan when she first arrived. Before she could do much more thinking, she had reached Machine Shop Three. 

  


Harper's domain.

  


The door opened and Rommie stepped into the mess that symbolized Harper. There was some sort of order to the chaos, otherwise how would Harper be able to instantly find anything he wanted? What ever order there was, it was so well hidden that even Rommie had yet to find it. 

  


"Rommie, darling, light of my life." Harper said, a grin on his face. "What can I do for you?" he asked.

  


"What do you think of Ambassador Lintar?" Rommie answered.

  


"What do I think of her? You mean, besides wanting to get a little action with her?" Harper said, a suggestive leer on his face. 

  


"Yes Harper, I mean besides your deluded belief that every woman thinks of you as a God." Rommie told him. 

  


"I think there is something off about her, why do you ask?" Harper answered. Before Rommie could reply there was a loud crash, as something hit the side of the ship. Andromeda's hologram appeared.

  


"We are under attack. I repeat, we are under attack." The hologram said calmly, broadcasting the same message everywhere in the ship. Rommie and Harper exchanged glances, Harper throwing Rommie a force lance he had been up-grading. The two ran out of the Machine Shop and looked around.

  


"I'll try and get to Command." Rommie said. "Harper, you try and find Trance, she on this floor somewhere - most likely without any weapon." she added. Harper nodded, gripping his own gun a little more tightly before heading down the corridor away from Rommie.

  


~~~ 

  


Things were not going well for Beka and Dylan. The two had been up in Command when the alarm had gone out.

  


"Captain, I can't detect Ambassador Lintar anywhere." Andromeda said. "One intruder approaching your position." she added. The door opened and a large lizard like aline charged in, firing it's weapon as it did so. Dylan instantly fired back, uttering a curse as the energy blast seemed to phase right through the alien.

  


"I hate it when they cheat." Beka said grimly, shooting rapidly at the alien, to give Dylan cover fire, while he ran from behind one console to another one, in an effort to give them an edge.

  


"Would it kill them to play fair for once?" She muttered as the lizard shoot again, missing Beka by a hair.

  


~~~ 

  


Rev Bem was also having problems. Another lizard creature had attacked him, and it was only by pure dumb luck that the Magog was not toasted by the creature and it's weapons energy blast. The lizard growled, a pink tongue flicking at Rev Bem. In a blink of an eye the lizard had stepped forward, grabbing Bem around the neck. It smiled, showing it's many sharp teeth, as it leaned in closer, it's weapon digging into Bem. 

  


At that very moment two large arms appeared around the lizard's neck, cleanly snapping it in two. Tyr Anasazi looked down at the dead intruder, disgust on his face.

  


"Inferior." He simply said. Rev Bem rubbed at his neck as Rommie reached them.

  


"Are you two okay?" she asked. Tyr nodded. "I've lost internal sensors, but before they went down Dylan and Beka were in Command along with one intruder." Rommie said, running towards command. Tyr and Rev Bem followed her.

  


"Were is the little professor?" Tyr asked. Rommie's lips twitched. It was not lost on either Rev Bem or Rommie that it had been Harper and none of the others, that Tyr had asked about.

  


"He's looking for Trance." Rommie replied. Tyr skidded to a halt.

  


"You let him go alone? The boy is a magnet for trouble." He said, rolling his eyes. "He will be dead in minutes... and his death will effect negatively on my chances of survival" At that, Tyr turned and ran back the way he had come, all his senses reaching out, straining forward to give him warning of any dangers.

  


~~~ 

  


A few decks down Harper was very confused. He had been looking for Trance when a lizard like alien had jumped from around a corner, a gun aimed right for Harper's head. The human had reacted in instinct, ducking down, his own weapon firing at the new enemy. It passed right thought the lizard. At the same split moment, Harper noticed the data port in the alien's neck and the little bit of metal sticking out of it.

  


"Tesseract generators? Again? Man, why do the bad guys always have the cool toys?" Harper whispered as the lizard raised it's weapon. There was no where for him to move, no way to avoid the blast that was about to hit him. Harper shut his eyes tightly, steadying himself for the injury that never came. 

  


Silence.

  


That was all that there was. Harper slowly opened his eyes, the lizard staring at him. Then to his complete confusion it turned and ran, using it's tesseract generator to escape.

  


"That's right, run you big scaredy cat!" Harper shouted, still confused. He began to preen himself. "I'm the man!" Harper said proudly, as he continued his search for Trance. He wandered through corridors, that were lit only by the emergency lighting, he moved around corners and stepped into empty rooms, in his hunt for Trance. There was no sign of his purple princess.

  


"Trance...?" He whispered as loud as he dared, peering down a dimly lit corridor. He was starting to get a little worried. Harper walked down the corridor on top toes, keeping to the wall, his eyes darting nervously about.

  


"Trance. My little pixie, come out, come out where ever you are..." He whispered, his thin voice carrying down the empty space. Harper reached one of his hidey holes and stopped.

  


"Come on Harper, think! If I was purple where would I go?" Harper asked himself. He peered down the empty hallway again, to make sure there was nothing coming his way. What he saw made his heart stop for a split second.

  


At the other end of the corridor was one of the lizard aliens. In his grasp was Trance who was struggling frantically. Harper didn't stop to think and launched himself out of his hiding space and charged towards the alien, trusting in the luck that had helped him before. He let out a battle cry, trying to find a clear shot. The alien looked up, its eyes widening at the sight in front of it. Then it dropped Trance to the ground and used its generator to escape. Harper skidded to a stop next to Trance, confused beyond measure about the aliens behavior, but not having the time to really think about it. Harper bent down and looked at his still friend, fear in his eyes.

  


"Trance?" He whispered, shaking her lightly. She didn't respond, just lay there, her eyes closed. "Come on..." he said, his voice trembling. 

  


"Please wake up!" He hissed, tears stinging at his eyes. He just needed a sign, just one little bit of movement to let him know she was alive. A tiny sigh came from Trance's lips and she shifted her head slightly. Harper smiled and moved back on his heels. 

  


_//I've got to get her out of here.\\ _He thought. Suddenly, Harper's head shot up, his eyes wide. He had just heard a scream. Ambassador Lintar came running around the corner, looking behind her as she did. She turned her head back and stopped dead, a few feet in front of Harper.

  


"Mr. Harper?" She gasped, her voice tinted with fear. "W-what are those things?" Lintar asked. Harper shrugged and ran a hand through his sandy hair.

  


"I don't know. Could you help me get Trance out of here?" He asked. Lintar's gaze fell on the body at her feet. She gave a little gasp of horror.

  


"Is... is she okay?" Lintar asked as she bent down, grabbing one of Trance's arms and putting it around her shoulder. Harper did the same with Trance's other arm and they slowly set off, Trance held between them.

  


"She's alive." Harper said, looking at Lintar. "Tha-" He stopped, his eyes on her data port, seeing the tesseract generator sticking out of it. Harper swallowed dryly and forced himself to carry on talking after only a seconds pause.

  


"That's all I know." He said. Lintar's eyes narrowed and she stopped, her hand flying to her neck. Harper froze as Lintar snarled and stepped away, letting go of Trance. Harper staggered slightly as the full weight of Trance was suddenly thrust on him. His hand twitched and moved towards his weapon.

  


"Don't even think about it." Lintar said dangerously. "I have a double advantage here - my tesseract generator and your injured friend." She sneered. "You just have to be so damn observant don't you Mr. Harper. That's one of the reasons my boss is so interested in you." Lintar said. Harper swallowed again, tiny beads of sweat on his forehead.

  


"Your boss wouldn't happen to be big, fiery and the God of the Magog would he?" Harper asked. Lintar smiled but didn't answer.

  


"The Spirit of the Abyss was very impressed with you. Now that Satrina is... no longer working for him, he has an empty position which he would like you to fill." She said, as if reciting a poem. Harper's eyes widened slightly at the mention of Satrina. He knew that Lintar meant she was dead.

  


"You know, that's really, really generous of him, but like I said before, I don't want to be one of his minions." Harper said.

  


"He wants you to be a lot more than a minion. Satrina was one of his best. Now she has gone, he wants you to take her place." Lintar said. Harper shook his head.

  


"No thanks, nice of you to offer but I'm quite happy here." He said, edging away slightly. 

  


"This isn't an offer." Lintar said, moving forward and pulling Trance away from him. The purple alien fell to the ground as Lintar clasped Harper around the arm and stepped forward, using her tesseract generator to move both of them to her own ship. She let go of his arm and he gave a tiny stagger backwards.

  


"There is no choice in this matter Seamus Zelazny Harper." Lintar said, lifting her gun and firing it. Harper only had time to realize it was some kind of tranquilizer gun before it hit him. He blinked a few times, and fell to his knees. Lintar's cold smile was the last thing he saw before the darkness claimed him. 

  


Lintar hurried over to her controls and powered up the engines, unlocking the docking clamps.

  


~~~ 

  


"Captain, Ambassador Lintar's ship is powering up." Andromeda's hologram said. The lizard alien looked up at the holograms words then turned and ran. Dylan stared at it in shock then shook his head, stepping out from behind the console. Beka stood up, dusting herself down.

  


"Well, that was fun." She said sarcastically. 

  


"Thank you for your hospitality Captain Hunt." Lintar's voice said, her face on the viewing screen. "It was so kind of you to let me come aboard. I hope my friends didn't cause to much trouble." She added.

  


"What do you want?" Dylan asked. Lintar laughed - a high cold laugh.

  


"I already have what I want Captain Hunt." She purred. "And while I am sure you want to chase after me, your little purple friend is currently in great danger and one of my friends has taken your slipstream off drive. Thank you once again for giving me your little mudfoot." she said. Beka tensed.

  


"What have you done to Harper?" She snapped. Lintar just smiled and blew them both a kiss, before terminating the communication. Her ship sped off and the two left on the bridge exchanged worried glances.

  


~~~ 

  


Inside Lintar's ship, the red haired woman stared down at her captive, the music of the Spirit of the Abyss in her mind. She turned back to the controls and plotted her course. The Andromeda must not find her until it was too late.

  


TBC...

  


Thanks for reading, I promise I will up-date this sooner next time. Hope you all enjoyed and please leave a review.

  


~Sethoz


End file.
